The Socratic Challenge-creating a learning environment
on the Internet.

This is a salute to the teachers who, with misgivings, reluctance and not a little confusion, have taken up the technology gauntlet and weld their intelligence and expertise to forge the "new learning."

From an esteemed colleague comes an admonition. Dr. Farhad Saba in a recent (March 7th, 2000) Deos List Serve exchange, astutely points out that social systems have non-linear behavior and new institutions do not necessarily arise from the old ones. He continues, and I quote,

"educators (by and large) are the only organized social group who are not using media to reach their audience. They insist on having their audience in a particular place, and at a particular time to communicate with them! Furthermore, they insist on communicating with their audience through a superstructure that cannot accommodate mediated education despite all the good will from the very top levels of the government through the rank and file of dedicated teachers and administrators."

If we, as educators, teachers and learners, could create a learning environment with the powerful tools at our command and no regard for the Œpaths well traveled¹ how would this new education structure be designed?

We know the challenges, the needs to build a literate society on a global scale. There comes a time when continued adaptation and reconfiguration can no longer support the overwhelming disparities in the education arena.

As a mind exercise, it would be intriguing to set ourselves the task to explore and configure an education system, not structured by the past, and fully using the tools of the future.

Please send us your thoughts, mind maps, pert charts, Venn diagrams, or whatever you create. We will share them as articles or through future podiums.

Elizabeth and Don Perrin
Managing Editors